Tag Archives: Randy Ingermanson

October is speculative month! Why? A) Because its my birthday B) I will be covering/reviewing a bunch of sci-fi fantasy books and internet sites C) Marcher Lord Press is releasing 5 excellent books and C) A holiday on the 31st where I get to eat lots of candy, compliments of my husband and children 🙂

So to start off October I want to showcase a book that just released today over at Marcher Lord Press. For anyone visiting or doesn’t know, Marcher Lord Press has been dubbed the premier publisher of Christian speculative fiction. It is also the publishing company that will be producing my own book Daughter of Light (release date TBA).

Anyone who knows me knows I like the weird, the strange, and the fantastical. So anytime I can promote my love for this genre in book, movie, or game form, I will. And here, to begin Speculative month, I give you Oxygen.

I asked Randy to tell me why he and John decided to re-release Oxygen. After all, the original book was great, garnering both readers and awards. Here is what Randy had to say:

When John and I started working on the new release back in March, we thought it would be pretty easy to tighten up the writing a bit. But then we started talking about the parts of OXYGEN that we didn’t like so much, and we discovered that there were some scenes we both hated.

And that scared the liver out of us, because as a whole, the original story worked very well. A lot of readers loved it and we won a pile of awards for it. So we didn’t want to break anything, but we still wanted to fix those pesky scenes that seemed to us to be clearly broken. It took us months to polish them up, but we finally got it done, and just in time.

The main “catastrophe in space” storyline hasn’t changed at all. That’s still exactly the same.

So what’s changed?

The romantic storyline between our heroine and hero has been buffed up a bit. We added a little more heat where it was needed early on, and we removed some conflict which we thought was heavy-handed artificial — mainly conflict over faith issues. Along the way, we inserted a little more humor.

We think the result is better than before. Not hugely better, but enough better that we feel good about every single scene now.

I can’t wait to read this new version of Oxygen and will probably write up a review sometime. But don’t wait to hear what I have to say about it, click here and check it out yourself. And check back the next few weeks to find more speculative goodness 🙂

Like this:

How did I become a writer? Most authors I know begin their story with something about when they were six they knew they wanted to be a writer. Not so with me. When I was six I wanted to be a pegasus unicorn 🙂 (probably explains why I write fantasy now).

I never dreamed of being a writer. In high school, I loved science and math, not English and certainly not writing. So how did I start? It began when I walked into a Christian bookstore and asked if they carried any Christian fantasy. The woman gave me a strange look and pointed to a lone Frank Peretti book at the end of the book aisle.

I went home stunned. That’s it? Just Frank Peretti? (by the way, I like his stuff, but I wanted more). After talking to Dan, he suggested maybe I should write. Yeah right. But the thought stuck with me. Then on a long car trip to Seattle, I had my idea for a book. I went home and wrote. I was naïve back then. I thought a writer sat down, wrote a book, found someone to publish it and that was that. Eight years later, I now know there is a whole lot more to the writing process.

I wrote for two years, just writing out the story in my head. Then I discovered there was a writing group in Oregon and that they were having a one-day conference in a couple weeks. I signed up. That one-day conference changed my writing life.

I met Randy Ingermanson (who was the guest speaker that day). For anyone who is thinking about writing fiction, you need to check out his website here. I went home and immediately signed up for his ezine and began to follow his blog. A couple months later, I followed Randy’s advice and signed up for the Mt Hermon Writing Conference.

Mt Hermon was another pivotal point in my writing life. For five days I met with hundreds of other Christian writers, learning how to write better, how to seek publication, met some great agents and publishers and came home ready to take my writing from a hobby to an earnest pursuit.

I spent the following year just writing. Next week I will share how I write a book (from idea to final draft), but let me just say now, it takes a loooong time (at least for me). By the end of that year, I had a finished, polished manuscript.

In 2010 I was able to attend Mt Hermon again and this time had a manuscript to share with publishers and editors. At this second conference, I ran into Rebecca Luella Miller, another pivotal person in my writing life. It was Becky who told me I should blog. Once again my thoughts were yeah right. How? When? And what would I write about? But with her gentle encouragement, I jumped into the blogging world.

It is now 2011 and I am still on my writing journey. Writing is a long, patient process. It requires self discipline, a willingness to learn the craft, and lots and lots of time. I’ll admit if I had known eight years ago what it took to be a writer, I would have been overwhelmed. But here I am and I love it :). I thank God for this medium by which I can share my life, my creative ideas, and His truth.

Next week I will share the ins and out of how I write a book (and no, its not just sit down and write, at least not for me lol). So don’t forget to stop by!